Dark Ranger
by The Corrupted Typer
Summary: The story of an ex high elf who had been killed by the scourge and raised as a banshee, who then became a dark ranger under the leadership of the banshee queen Sylvanas Windrunner.
1. Dying- I think?

I was lying on the ground, surrounded by a pool of blood, with an arrow jutting out of my chest. I was in immense pain, and it was getting harder and harder to breath. My throat was collapsing, making me wheeze in the air, sucking up whatever energy I had left. The pain worsened, but that was the least of my worries. My vision was faltering, and everything was becoming increasingly blurry. I had to strain my eyes to see anything, and what I saw made my stomach flip over and do a barrel roll.

All around me my comrades lay on the ground, in a similar position that I was in. some were already dead, but some of them still clung onto life, if you could call it living. some of them still had there weapons in there hands, as if they wanted to get up and start fighting again, despite the position they were in. i too wanted to jump up and fight, but the whole arrow in the chest thing got in the way of that. I didn't even know where my bow was, and i had used my daggers already to kill an abomination. I had my fists, but that wouldn't do any good. I was an archer, not a warrior.

Blood filled my throat, making it even harder to breath. Stupid arrow. But I some how managed to lift up my head and look around. There were a few undead scouts running about, looters I guessed. But the bulk of the army had already advanced further towards the city. I hope they can hold them off.

I was beginning to think how ironic it was that i was killed by an arrow when I was a farstrider. I was a top notch archer, always hitting my target, yet here I was, an arrow jabbed into my chest. If only I hadn't been fighting off those abominations, I might have saw it coming. Eh, who am I kidding, even the ranger general went down.

Holy crap, the ranger general went down! Who's supposed to command the troops? I looked around, wishing I could see what was happening. The ranger general had been not far in front of me, fighting this weird looking guy with a crazed look on his face. Sylvanas Windrunner was good, but this guy was using spells that I've never seen before! He was raising people from the dead and sending them against us! Huh, I guess that's where the undead army came from. I wonder where he learned to do that.

Anyway, back to what happened. The ranger general was killed with the guys sword, and after that I don't know what happened. I was hit with an arrow not long afterwards, and I don't know where the general is. I wonder if she's still alive, maybe she lived? I don't know. She probably did, no one just goes up and kills the ranger general, it's a lot harder than you'd think. Not even Brightwing could beat her, and he was pretty good.

I heard horns in the distance, and I strained my ears to hear what was happening. they were definitely Silvermooon horns, but what kind I didn't know. There were only two things it could mean. It could mean that we were victorious and that we had beaten the undead, which would be good. Or it could beat signal for the troops to retreat, which mans we lost, which would be really bad.

I strained my ears, hoping to here the victory horns. My last wish is for us to have won the battle, and our people and the sunwell were safe. I wanted it so badly, I couldn't live with myself if I died for nothing. We had to have won, we just had to. So many people have died already, it couldn't have all been in vain! The ranger general died in this battle, her sacrifice couldn't have been for nothing! We had to have won, we just had to!

As I strained my ears so hard i thought they would pop, I heard the horns one again. my heart plumetted in despair, or maybe it was the arrow going though it. The horns were signaling retreat, we had lost. What would happen now? The enemy would take the city, take the sunwell what would we do without the sunwell? We needed it!

My back started to feel wet for some reason, and i tried to figure out why. I leaned my head to the side to try and see what it was, and then i saw that the pool of blood had gotten larger, much larger. Oh, right. Arrow in the heart, how do I keep forgetting? I lay back down once i remembered that I was dying, trying to calm myself, pushing away the troubling thoughts of what would happen to our people. They would be fine, they would regroup and take down the undead, no one could stop our arm. We were the best, after all, with or without the ranger general.

Well, her absence would definitely slow things down, but we could still take them! The second in command would take charge or something. Who is the second in command anyway? Wasn't it that Lor'themar guy? I don't know, maybe it was Brightwing.

My throat was full of blood, making it pretty much impossible to breath, and there was no way I would be able to speak. My mouth filled up with the red liquid, making me gag it out onto the ground next to me. Which didn't really do much since my mouth just filled right back up. It had a disgusting salty metallic taste to it, making me want to vomit. But I knew that wouldn't do any good. It was bad enough that I was dying, I didn't want to empty my stomach contents as well. But all of the blood really was getting on my nerves, I had to lean over every five seconds to spit it out. Wasn't death supposed to be peaceful and all? I guess that was another lie, just like the whole 'There's no such thing as undead' crap. What lies they taught us.

Anyway, dying, right. Sorry, my train of thought is always getting derailed. Sometimes it falls of the tracks and plummets into a bottomless pit. Like it just did. I tried to relax, going onto my back and trying to die peacefully, but I continued to gag up blood, ruining my tunic. The arrow was still jutting out of my chest too, I glared at it. As if that would do any good.

Then the blood started to stop coming, drying in my mouth. I felt weak, and I knew that there was basically no more blood to lose, except for the blood coming out of my chest wound. Any warmth that still lingered in my body was disappearing, seeping into the ground and being replaced with a deathly cold. My body started shaking, and I was wondering what was going on. Well, I knew what was going on, I was dying. I started to cough, and found that my voice was rough and cracked. Pieces of dried blood came out of my mouth, flying onto the ground. The shaking began to stop, and I realized that I couldn't feel my legs.

My thoughts began to get mixed up, all jumbled around in my head. I wanted to cough, I wanted to plead out for help, but I found myself unable to. All I could do was sit there and wait, there was no way I was going to be healed in time. I was certain that all of the priests were somewhere else, healing those that could be healed. I was pretty sure that i was done for by now. Well, at least I died fighting, whether it was in vain or not. I died serving my people, and i guess that was something to be proud of. I at least got to kick some undead ass, which was a victory to me.

I smiled to myself, which was hard since whatever blood was left in me was slowly leaking out of the corners of my lips, since I had apparently lost the ability to gag. I closed my eyes, they weren't much use now, everything had become really blurry now. There was no point in keeping them open.

I was about to die, all peaceful and everything. But the ground just had to start shaking. I don't know how far away the horse was, or how I could even feel the ground shaking now, but I knew there was a horse coming. My eyes shot open, hope rising in my chest. Maybe it was the priests, maybe they could save us! Maybe we had won, and I just hadn't heard the horns right. I strained my ears once again, trying to make out how many of them there were. But as far as I could tell there was only one horse, which was odd. Usually when reinforcements came, they came in bulk, especially when there was healing involved.

I forced myself to stay alive, just long enough to see what was happening. I wasn't hoping to live, I was pretty sure that wasn't going to happen, but I just wanted to know if we had won. If we had won, I could die happy, well relatively happy. Dying wasn't exactly fun, you know.

The hoof beats got louder and louder until i was sue that they were only twenty yards away at the most. I heard a horse neigh. Wait, we don't have horses, unless it was a paladin. Why would there be a hors- oh, that's why.

In front of me, sitting on top of a skeletal horse, was a grim looking man. He wore black armor, decorated with skulls mostly, and a helm covering his face, but his eyes were a bright shining blue, could he have been a high elf? maybe h had stolen one of the undead's mounts? Oh wait, scratch that.

He had taken off his helm, revealing long, ghost white hair, that was so brittle it looked like one touch would break it all. He had a sickly face, deathly pale face, and a grim smile on his face. His expression was some what like 'I enjoy killing you'. Bastard. He had this huge sword hanging from his belt. Wait a second, it looks really familiar. Oh. it's the sword that killed the ranger general. So that means- hes the bastard that brought the undead here! I wanted to get up and kick his ass, but I still couldn't feel my legs, plus I had no weapons, so all I could manage was a venomous scowl.

He kneeled down by one of my almost dead comrades and said some words that I couldn't hear into her ears. Some dark substance seemed to be sucked out of her, and she immediately turned pale and died. the substance went into a little charm that the guy was holding, and he went on to the next high elf he saw.

Whoa whoa whoa, what the heck was that? what had he done to her? What was that black substance? What was that charm he had? Look at me, nearly dead but I still have as much curiosity as a wild monkey on sugar rush.

All I could do was watch as the guy knelt down by every living high elf ranger and do the same thing over and over again: kneel down, whisper those funky words, and collect the substance. kneel down, collect substance. Collect substance, collect substance, collect substance. And as he did I became even more curious. Seriously, what the heck was he doing? What was that black substance? How was I still alive at this point?

Oh yeah, I'm still dying. How do I keep forgetting? Some how I think I was managing to stop the process, but only for a little. My energy was slowly ebbing away bit by bit, all being put into staying alive long enough to see what he was doing. I couldn't move, my body was frozen. The blood had stopped coming out of my wounds, and I felt even colder than before. But I managed, somehow. I had to find out what this man was doing, It was a burning desire that made me stay alive.

The man came closer and closer, doing the same thing over and over again. He had the same sick expression written on his face every time, as if this was the most fun he had ever had. And with every person that died, his Face got even worse. I wanted to look away, but i forced myself to watch, glaring at him as I did. Elf after elf died, collapsing to the ground as the black substance was sucked from them. What was that substance? Every time it was sucked away, the person died. what's up with that? I hated watching, but I forced my eyes to stay open.

Finally he came to me, the only elf who still had her eyes open. I was scowling at him, trying to put as much hate into my features as I could. He grinned as he stood over me. I guess this is it, I was going to get the life sucked out of me. He knelt down beside me, his charm in his hand, close to my face. He brushed some of my blonde hair out of my face, which was sticky with blood. I glared at him harder, wishing that looks could kill. Because if they could, this guy would have been demolished.

He laughed at this, a sick, venomous laugh that chilled me to the core. But it could have been that I was about to die and all.

"Your hate is really silly, elf," he said in a slick venomous tone that sounded like the voice of a snake "You are going to serve me for the rest of eternity, it's much easier if your do it willingly, trust me."

I wanted to spit at him, but I had nothing to spit. I tried to clear my throat to respond, which sucked up a lot of energy. I wanted to kill him, but I knew that wasn't going to happen.

I gathered up the last of my energy to say one last thing in response to him, "Go... to.. hell.. you... sick bastard..."

He grinned, seeming to be amused by my defiance. With the last of my energy gone, I let my head fall back onto the ground and my eyes slammed shut. I was ready for death. I let the rest of my body numb, and I felt my shoulder begin to shake. The muscles relaxed, and my shoulders rolled back. Darkness surrounded me, darkness that I welcomed.

But fate decided to be an asshole. I felt my self being ripped away from the darkness, as if my soul was being ripped away. Oh, so that's what that necklace was for. I tried to fight, tried to go back to dying, but it was too much. I was sucked out of body and thrown into a deep darkness, seeing nothing. It wasn't death, I still existed. But I wish I had died instead.


	2. I Have No Life

I must have been trapped in that thing for days, weeks, months, I don't know, there's no sense of time in that gem. All I knew was that I was there, that was it. I was surrounded by never-ending darkness, stretching in all directions with no light at all. It was a lonely existence, and it sucked, big time.

There wasn't exactly anything to do, which is why there was no sense of time. There was nothing to see, I might as well have had my eyes closed, if I could even close them. I don't know if I had eyes, or limbs or even body, there was no moving or doing so I don't really know. There was no seeing, moving, smelling, eating, hearing, or feeling, there was just existing.

I don't know if I was dead, because I could still think and I knew I existed. That was pretty much all I did, existed. Without being able to do anything, I just existed. It would have been as boring as hell if there was time, but luckily there wasn't, so it went by pretty quickly.

But while I was there, I had some time to think. Like I said, I wasn't sure if I was dead, but I think I was. I still existed, but my body was definitely dead. I don't know where it was, but it was dead. But I somehow still existed, I guess it had to do with that weird guy I saw before I was sucked into this place, but I don't know. Maybe I was alive, maybe I wasn't.

Maybe I was unconscious, but I was pretty sure that wasn't the case. I was aware that I existed, and from the people I met who went unconscious, they had no idea that they were when they were. So I think I can scratch unconscious off the list.

So I really had no idea what was going on. There was only existing in that dark place, and that was all. It was almost painful being there, knowing that you existed but not being able to do anything. In life, I had done a lot of stuff every day, especially recently.

Everyday for the past month, or maybe it was year ago for all I knew, I had gone out everyday and spent hours upon hours searching and for and killing the undead. And I would always go back home at the end of the day, tired as hell, and complain about how much work I had to do and how I wish I didn't have to do any of it.

Right now, I would do all that one hundred times over than be in that dark place. Heck, I would rather be dead. I might already be dead, but I don't think so. I don't know why, but I just don't think I'm actually dead. I think things would be a lot different then.

Because, well, every once in a while, especially now, I think I keep hearing theses moans. It might just be my imagination, as I currently feel like I'm going crazy, but I swear they're real. They're these high-pitched moans of agony, and when ever I hear them, I feel like something just crawled up my back and then wrapped really bony fingers around my neck. But I don't see anything, so it's hard to tell whether or not it was real.

But then one day, as I sat in the black darkness and existed, I felt a tug. It wasn't a tug like your best friend grabbing you by the arm or some jerk confronting you and jerking your shoulder back, it was a lot harder. It was like something was sucking me away, and as it did I felt jittery all over. And that's what made me scared, I could feel. That entire time I couldn't feel, except for those few times when I felt like something was crawling up my spine, but now I could feel. It was as if I had a body again, and it was on fire inside. Not like, 'Oh shit, it burns!' more like 'Ooh, tingly.' if you know what I mean.

I felt, oh how do I say this... I guess the best way to explain it is like being sucked out of something. I had a sense of feeling, but of course right when I got feeling back I didn't want it. Why? Because it hurt like hell! Ever wonder how ants feel when you accidentally suck them up into the vacuum cleaner? Well, let's just say they had a painful demise. It's like having half your body going one way and the other half going the other way, and you either get torn in half or you go either way.

I'm pretty certain I almost got torn in half, almost that is. Whatever was 'sucking me out' won, and the pain ebbed. It was still there, I just didn't feel like shooting myself with my own arrow. You know, If I still had my arrows, or bow, or body.

In an instant I began to see light, well dull grey actually, and I was thrown into this dull grey. At first I thought, heaven? But I found out pretty quickly I wasn't there when I saw the huge lich standing in front of me.

I screamed, falling backwards. But then I realized something. I had _screamed. _I could _do stuff_ now. I wasn't stuck in the darkness anymore. I was in the dull grey, the world. I wasn't dead. Or so I thought.

Of course, I was still recovering from the shock of seeing a fucking lich standing right in front of my face. And he was still there, by the way, looking down at me with a smile on his face. Well, I think it was a smile. It's hard to tell with them being undead and what not.

Anyway, I digress. Lich standing in front of me, not dead, you get the point. He kneeled down towards me, causing me to move back a few paces from where I sat on the floor, which only caused him to laugh. Jerk.

"Please, Sister," he said "Do not fret. You are safe here, with us. We will not harm you."

I rolled my eyes, another thing I missed from life. "Yeah, like I'm going to believe that. Last time I was around one of you, I got shot in the chest with an arrow!"

Th lich "smiled" again, which just made him look even more scary. "Ah, but you were alive then. We were merely granting you the gift of undeath, so that you may serve the true master in the world."

"Undeath?" I asked "What do you mean? I can't be undead! That can't happen! It's impossible!"

"Please, sister-"

"Sister? I don't think I remember a lich growing up at the dinner table!" I said, cutting him off. "So don't you dare call me family!"

The lich shook his head. "We are all family in undeath, sister. And once you accept what you are, this world gets better."

"What are you talking about?" I asked "I'm not undead! There is only life and death for me, and I would pick death anytime over being undead!"

The lich shook his head, and looked to the side. I looked in the direction and saw one of those undead mongrels sitting in the corner, the mindless abomination looking around absent-mindedly. The lich snapped a finger, or rather a bone, and the thing looked up.

"Bring the mirror," aid the lich.

The _thing_ grunted and ran off somewhere behind me, and I heard a clatter of things being thrown around. The thing came back. pushing a mirror that had wheels on the bottom. I watched the lich and saw him smiled slightly as the thing out the mirror in front of me. I gasped as I saw the reflection, not believing my eyes.

I caressed a hand over my now pale white cheek, only for it to go through nothing. My hair, which was once sleek and black, was now a sick teal blue, hanging over my shoulders so cracked it looked like it would break off. I was wearing a white dress over my transparent body, which seemed to scream 'I'm dead'. My eyes were two white beady dots in my skull. I brushed a hand over my hair and gasped when I saw the razor-sharp black claws that now grew out of them.

I had once been a beautiful high elf ranger, living in the forests of Quel'thalas, defending my home with my life, using my bow and arrows to fight for what I believed in. I had though the undead, killed them until they killed me. But now I was the one thing I had fought till my dying breath, I was the abomination I had hated all my life. But I wasn't alive anymore. I was undead. There was nothing left of my former life to hold me back. There was only death now. I could see this now.

I looked at the look, who was smiling as her watched me.

"Do you understand now sister?" he asked. he held out a hand for me to grasp, which I stared at blankly for a few moments.

then I looked at him, knowing what I had to do. "Yes, brother." I grasped his hand, and he smiled as he pulled me up from the ground.

I looked down and saw that I no longer had feet, and that I floated now. I looked to him, waiting for my first command.

He smiled back at me. "the scourge welcomes you, sister. Please, follow me. We must get you settled in now."

I nodded, staring back blankly at him. I was a member of the scourge now. There was no life, there was only death. What ever memories I had of my past life were gone, there was only death and he scourge now.

He walked over to a set of stairs, and I began to follow, but I stopped, looking back at the mirror. I took one look at my reflection, remembering what I now looked like now and what I had back then, and shot the glass with an orb of shadow magic, shattering the mirror and the reflection with it, forgetting all about what I had once looked like so long ago.

I turned back to the lich, who was waiting for me, and nodded, beginning to follow him again.

What ever life I had once lived was gone. There was no high elf or Quel'thalas or any of that. There was only death and the scourge. I was never a farstrider. I had never been a beautiful high elf. And I had never hated the scourge or served Silvermoon till my death.

There is only now, and now is undeath.


	3. A Bad Day at Work?

I walked through the halls with the _lich, _looking around at all the undead. Wow, I'll never get used to saying that I'm actually working with a _lich. _That's how he put it. Apparently he's the boss guy at this base thing we're at. And I'm the new recruit, the new kid in school sort of thing.

"Down that hall are the death knight quarters," he said, pointing down a hallway to the left "And down there is where we keep the bodies for raising, you'll be working down there for a few months,"

Wait, _what? _Work with the _bodies? _I'm going to be raising people from the dead?! That's disgusting! Okay, so it's a little awesome in a way, but mostly disgusting!

"I'm going to be raising people from the dead?" I asked "I can do that?"

He glanced back, well actually he twirled his head around like an owl. Ew. "Actually, no, you can't. Not yet, anyway. You will be working under the lich there to help him raise them as undead. You'll be working with body count and what not."

"Bummer," I said, with a little too much disappointment.

He just glanced back at me giving me this 'Are you serious?' look. "Glad to see you're getting into the spirit of things," he said.

Oh yeah, I sure am getting into the spirit of things. Just raised as an undead and I'm already excited about dead bodies! That must be a new record.

We reached the end of the hall, and the lich stopped and looked back at me. "Okay, that is the end of the tour. Any questions, comments, concerns, health risks? Lost one of your arms? Missing some teeth? Found someone elses arm?"

I shook my head- er, ghost head thing, whatever it's called -and asked "Nah, I'm good. So, where are the banshee's rooms?"

He looked at me like, 'Are you seriously asking me that?' "Banshees don't sleep. Almost no undead do, we don't need to rest. You always work. And guard. And fight. You never sleep."

"Never?" I asked.

"Never ever." he said "Alright, I have some bodies to raise. Your shift at the morgue starts in a few minutes. I would hustle. The lich there isn't fond of elves. Even the dead ones. If you have any questions, just keep your mouth shut and forget about them."

He walked past me, not even bothering to see if I had any health risks or concerns. Jeesh, he needs to do better at his job. I might have had some questions to ask, like where the morgue is. Because I don't know where it is.

Okay, back to the story. I looked back at the hallway and tried to figure out where the morgue was. When the lich had shown it to me I had sort of been distracted by the whole 'working with dead bodies' thing. Which would have been a little fun if I got to do the raising. But nope, I get to do body count. I mean, who wants to do that?

I tried to bite my lip, a habit from my old life, but found that I couldn't really do that with the whole dead thing. My teeth went right though my lip. Weird.

I started walking- er, floating, I mean -down the hallway, hoping that I could find some undead helper guy. They had those, right? I mean, with a labyrinth of a place like that you'd think they would have a guide or something. Maybe one of those handy-dandy maps hanging around?

I slowly floated down the hallway, still getting used to the whole floating thing. It was really different from walking. Probably because I didn't have feet and i was one foot up in the air. The controls were pretty simple though. Float his way, float that way. Not to hard.

I walked down the hallway, peering down every hallway as I passed it, becoming more and more lost. I know, I probably should have paid attention during that tour. But how do you expect me to do that with the new excitement of working with dead people?

A few minutes went by, and I was pretty sure I was lost, and late for my new job too. Wow this isn't going to look good on my portfolio. Late on the first day, that is so not going to help when I try to get my next job.

I looked around, wondering how I was supposed to find my way around this place, when I spotted this undead person. They weren't like the other undead I had seen, Who had all been mangled up and disfigured. This person, or undead I guess, looked as if they could still be alive, except they had a darker color scheme.

It was a blue creature, with tentacles coming out of its neck and horns growing out of its head. And I think it had a... tail. A real tail with a point at the end. It had very light blue skin and dark, dark lips, and I think it was girl, but it's hard to tell with the tentacles. It had longer ears too, and... hooves, real hooves. And it's hair was black, put up into a pony tail thing, and it was wearing a black robe and it had a sword.

I walked up to it, trying not to stare at the tentacles. "Excuse me?" I asked.

The, thing looked up at me and said "What are you doing here? This is the death knight's quarters! No banshees allowed!"

Okay, so it's a female. A nasty one at that, but a female. "Yeah, I'm lost. I'm trying to find he morgue. It's my first day on the job, and I'm already late. Do you think you could hep me?"

"Ah, a newly-raised. I see." she said. She pointed down the hall and said, "Go that way, and take a left. First room on the right. You can't miss it, the smell is too strong."

"Thanks," I said.

She nodded. "And stay out of the death knight's quarters next time!" she yelled before she went back to doing whatever it was she was doing.

I took the route she said, and sure enough, I began to smell the strong scent of decomposing bodies and rotting flesh. As disgusting as the smell is, at least I'm headed the right way.

Soon enough I came to a door that looked like it had someone's blood splashed along it and I tried to push it open. But then I realized, I couldn't do that, because my hand went right through the door. I stood there thinking, 'Well how am I supposed to get in?'.

I almost face palmed my forehead when I realized how stupid that sounded. Duh, I could just go through the door! I sighed, which came out as a raspy cough, and floated through the door. It felt really weird, when I was going through it was really slow, but then as more of my body went through the rest of it just sort of snapped through, and I was sort of dazed a little.

But then the scent of dead people reached my nose, if I even had a nose, and I snapped out of the funk. I had a job to do, no matter how disgusting it might be.

I looked around and saw that I was in a small square room with a bunch of banshees and undead running around doing stuff with... dead bodies. They were everywhere. Just lying around. It stunk really badly, too.

"Eww," I said as I stifled the urge to throw up, if I even could throw up.

In the middle of the room were two people that stood out: An undead guy smiling as he... took apart the bodies, and a lich. This lich was not like the other lich. This lich looked pissed. His face, or rather his skull, had a huge frown on it where lips and a mouth should have been. He was also a lot bigger than the lich from before, and he was yelling out orders to the undead in the room.

Knowing that I was already very late, I began to float over to the lich, doing my best not to flinch from the angry glare he gave off to everyone.

"Hi," I said "Is this the morgue?"

Again, he gave me that 'Are you really asking me that?' face. "No, it's a beauty Salon. OF COURSE IT'S THE MORGUE! Is there any other reason why there would a bunch of dead people lying around?!"

I had to try really hard not to flinch. His voice was deep and very intimidating, and it did the job if his goal was to scare me to life.

"Uh, right, sorry, I'm sort of new here," I said "This other Lich said I was supposed to come here to work,"

The undead guy looked up from the body he was dissecting and asked "Name please?"

"Um... My name from life was Clea," I said.

He thought for a few moments. "Yes, yes. I do remember Zan'raz saying something about a new banshee being raised by the name of Clea," How exactly did they know my name? "Well, welcome to the scourge. You should check in with the general soon, right after your shift here ends. She would probably want to know of your... existence."

"The general?" I asked.

The undead nodded. "Yes," he said "Kalarasith is the leader of the banshees here... she would want to know of a new recruit into her ranks."

I nodded. "Okay then, so what should I do here?"

"Right now," said the lich "There are some bodies to be counted. Count them to the exact number. Not one over, not one under. NOW MOVE IT!"

I bolted before I could ask anymore questions, that angry lich making it very clear that I had a job to do. I went over to the nearest pile of bodies and began counting, trying my best not to breath in the nasty smell of decomposing flesh.

It was pretty disgusting. Blood was everywhere, flies were buzzing around, half decomposed bodies lying around here. You'd think they would have some sort of order around this place, but there's not. I think they just dump the bodies wherever there's a free space on the floor, not bothering to keep blood and gore from smearing the walls and floor.

Well I'll try not to make you gag anymore, no need for you to lose your much too. I began to count rapidly, trying to get this job done as soon as possible.

"One, two, three..."

* * *

"One hundred seventy-eight, one hundred seventy-nine, and done!" I said as I counted the last body.

I must have been working for hours, just counting. I'm so glad I don't have feet, other wise they'd be covered in mushy dead body stuff and blood. I smiled, glad to be done. I walked over to the lich, who was standing in the same spot he been standing in before, his 'face' still taunt in a scowl.

he looked down at me as I approached and growled "What do you want?!"

"Um, I um, counted all the bodies, sir!" I said.

"Well?" he asked "SPIT OUT SOME NUMBERS!"

"One hundred and seventy-nine!" I blurted out "One hundred and seventy-nine in total."

The lich grunted. "Sounds about right. You got lucky." He said "Your shifts over. NOW GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!"

"Yes, sir," was all I was able to squeal out before I bolted out the door, not even noticing the weird feeling I get when I moved through stuff.

I stopped, glad that I was out of there. I don't know how I'll manage to work there every single day. It's torture! Dead people, rotting body parts, it smells like a skunk exploded, and that lich is an ass.

I looked around and realized I needed to report to the general. One problem: I have no idea where she is, just like I have no idea where anything in this maze of a building is.

"Shit," I said under my breath.

I looked around, hoping to see that death knight from earlier, but this place was a ghost town. No pun intended. There wasn't a person in sight, my guess was that they were all either working or... doing whatever it was undead did in their free time.

I decided that I would wing it and try to find her myself, and if I couldn't find her, I would just wander around until I found someone who did know where she was. Not too hard, right? Wrong.

As I probably mentioned earlier, this little base was maze and I was the mouse, running around trying to find that cheese that I knew was somewhere around here, I just couldn't find it. I ran around the base for a good thirty minutes, getting more lost b the second. At first I had tried to memorize the turns I had taken so I would be able to back track my way in case I gave up, but soon I forgot them while I was looking for a pace a general would be. I'm not one for multitasking, if you haven't noticed already.

As I was wandering around, beginning to feel like a failure since I couldn't even find my way around a base, I began to give up. Well i couldn't really give up since I was already lost and had nowhere to go, but in my mind, I had so given up. I didn't know how the day could get any worse. I was working for an angry lich who hated my guts and made me count bodies and I was such a newb that I couldn't even find my way around a building. Talk about a way to start of your unlife.

Just I was about to stop and try to back track, I heard singing. That's right, singing. It was beautiful singing, a sad tune, but beautiful. I began to perk up, thinking that maybe there was someone here that could help me out, and I began to follow the sound of the singing, that beautiful singing.

The music itself sounded like it was just around the corner, but it was actually a lot farther away. I as going around corner after corner, the signing getting louder and louder, before I came o small courtyard.

It was like that little strand of light among the dark, a beacon of hope among the hopeless. This little courtyard, all though it may seem ugly to others, was beautiful to me. It looked like it used to be part of a human city, with pieces of gray bricks laying around, grass sprouting out where rocks didn't lay. It was a small, little fragment of humanity, of life, but it was enough. A fountain sat in the middle of the courtyard, water sprouting out of the top and adding to the scenery of the place.

For the first time in my undead life I saw the sky. It was a cloudy gray, but... I liked it that way. It gave that little courtyard hat gray feeling that made me feel almost alive.

But the best part was them. A group of banshees, one in the lead, stood in the middle of the courtyard, singing that beautiful tune. It made me so happy, that's right happy, to hear it. It sounded so right. It was sad tune but I loved it for it. It reminded me of my life and all the things I had achieved, and of my death, and where I was now.

I stood there, well I floated, waiting for the banshees to finish singing. They continued that little tune for a few more minutes before they stopped, and began to slowly spread out, doing there own thing or leaving entirely. Reality seemed to hit me like a brick wall, and I went back to the task of finding that general.

I looked around and spotted a banshee that looked like the type that would be a leader and made my way over to her. She didn't look that different from me except she had light gray hair, and she wore a blue robe and looked... leader like.

As I approached she looked up and I saw that she had a sad, yet clam, expression. She had eyes that struck me so hard I almost turned around and left. They were filled with so much sadness, so much grief, so much wisdom. But I kept going forward until I came about a few fee away from where she stood.

"Yes, young one?" she asked, her voice surprisingly welcoming, in a wisdomy way.

"Um, are you Kalarasith?" I stammered.

She nodded. "That was indeed my name of life. What has sent you here?"

"Um, this undead guy said I should go to you after I was done working." I said. "I'm Clea,"

Her eyes widened ever so slightly. "Ah, so you are the newly raised I have been expecting," I nodded, and she smiled. "Welcome to the city of Lor'daeron, young one."

I looked around and realized why this place made me feel so happy. This was the old courtyard of Lor'daeron, the city had visited often when I was little with my family. I used to play there all the time, but it was a hell of a lot different back then.

"This is our home," Kalarasith said "It is ours, and ours only. No other creature is allowed here but us, the banshees of the scourge. You are free to do as you wish here."

I nodded, still looking around in wonder. This was my home, and mine only. No one was ever going to take this away from me.


	4. News Flash!

It's been about a week, I think. Kind of hard to tell when you're always inside. Even when I'm in the courtyard it's hard to tell what time it is, the sky is always gray with fog, so there's no distinguishing between night and day. But a guard I asked said it was... some day in common, I don't really know. One of the banshees said I'd been there for a week though. I wonder how she figured that out. They must have some time thing...

Anyway, I digress. I have more important stuff to tell you. Long story short, a lot has happened.

I guess I'll start with my third day on the job. By then I had gotten a good feel of how things worked in the ruins, Banshees worked strictly in the morgue and with the guard, no exceptions. Death knights made sure things were under control in the ruins, patrolling the halls and making sure there were no rebellions from the citizens we were 'imprisoning'. I'll get back to that one later. They also went on raids and stuff, gathering supplies and what not. Liches... Liched. I'm not entirely sure what they do. I think they help raise dead people and boss people around. They seem to be in charge here.

All right, I'll get back to the whole imprisoning thing. When Arthas- eh hem, the Lich king, our king, boss guy in Icecrown- took control of Lordaeron, the people were... upset. There king had just died, the crown prince had 'betrayed' them, and they were being forced to condemn to his will. They're currently imprisoned because they were causing lots of trouble, and I think they're going to be raised soon.

I don't understand them. They reject what Arthas- Lich king, sorry- is trying to give them, eternity under the rule of the strongest leader there is. Yet they fight him. What's wrong with them? He's given us all a second chance, and he can give them one to. Jeesh, fleshies.

All right, I'll get back to day three. I think I've babbled on enough already.

Well I was in the morgue, finishing up my shift when everything happened. I was directing some of the servants, the ugly little dead creatures that were too mangled up to be fully raised, to put some bodies onto the cart for raising. I was a little behind and I was trying to get everything done so I wouldn't get yelled at, again.

It was then that a whirl of wind washed over me, blowing me this way and that.

"What the hell?!" I cursed as my body began to shift with the wind.

I looked around, trying to find the source of the wind since we were in a morgue with no windows, and saw an undead elf standing in the corner. She had red eyes and dried, but wavy, blonde hair. For someone who was dead she seemed pretty peppy, and she was jumping up and down with a scroll in her hand. To this day that is one of the oddest sights I have ever, ever seen.

I noticed she had a cloak wrapped around her, and I wondered just who exactly she was. She was the first undead elf I had seen, and I was curious. My lich boss, I had yet to learn his name (Mostly because I was too scared to ask), growled and floated over.

"Who are you?" he demanded.

To my surprise, the girl didn't flinch. Instead she continued to bounce up and down with a grin on her face that would have made one of the corpses I was counting raise an eyebrow and say 'Are you serious?'.

"Ranger Anya reporting for duty sir!" she said so fast and with such a high pitched voice that I just rolled my eyes. "I came from Icecrown. I took this long journey here on one of those flying bats and it was really fun! I fell off a few times and almost died but then I realized I couldn't die because I'm already dead and everything was better!"

"Stop with your blabbering and tell me why you're here already!" Yelled my boss lich, looking more irritated then I had ever seen him before.

"Oh right!" said Anya, holding out the scroll "The big guy in the armor told me to come here and give you this. He said it was very important."

The lich yanked the scroll out of her hands and opened it up, reading it. Anya just looked around with amazement, as if she had never been in a morgue before. She seemed very excited, and she was still bouncing up and down in place, with that darn smile on her face.

The lich smashed the scroll in his hands and crumpled it up, throwing it over his shoulder. He looked even more irritated and I wondered what the paper had said, but as I watched it fly through the air it set on fire and it was a pile of ashes in a matter of seconds.

The lich said somethings that I'm assuming was cursing in his language, and looked back at the still bouncing elf. I couldn't help but nod my head up and down as I watched her bounce. Up, down, up down... I only stopped watching after I started getting dizzy.

"Would you stop bouncing?!" The Lich hissed as his frown -if it was possible- deepened.

"Why_?_ Do you not like bouncing? I like bouncing. It's so fun! And you get exercise! And that makes you strong! And the big in Icecrown said it's good to be strong. I like bouncing. Don't you?" said the elf so fast I didn't catch half the words that came out of her mouth.

"No, no I do not like BOUNCING!" yelled the Lich.

"Oh, okay!" said Anya, who stopped bouncing.

I almost laughed, that's right, laughed! I've never seen someone get on that Lich's nerves so much and not flinch at all. The lich's face though... priceless.

The Lich sighed. "Finally," he murmured. He looked around the room and his eyes landed on me, and I immediately flinched. There was just something about those blue eyes that made me want to run away and hide under the bed I still don't have. His gaze locked on me, and he pointed a bony finger at my head.

"You!" he shouted, making me whimper. "Take this bouncy freak show to Kalarasith. NOW!"

I nodded and scrambled over to the elf, who had begun to bounce yet again.

"Come on," I said, and I would have tugged on the girls shoulder if it hadn't been for the whole lack of flesh thing.

"Okay!" said the girl in that still too cheery voice.

I was out the door before the Lich could yell at me to hustle, the girl trailing behind me. Once I was in the hallway, and out of the sight of the Lich, I slowed down, glad to have a little break from work. Even if that meant I had to babysit the bouncy elf.

I glanced to my right and watched the door swing open and the undead elf come bouncing out. She looked even more excited than before, if that was possible.

"Wow that was really cool!" she said "You can go through doors? That's really cool! I didn't know banshees could do that. Can I do that? Could you teach me?"

"Woe woe woe, slow down!" I said, waving my hands "Yes, I can go through doors. I can also go through walls and other things. All banshees can. No, you can't go through doors. And I can't teach you either, it's a banshee ghost thing. Now, we need to get down to Kalarasith, all right? She's the head of the banshees, so lets hustle. What ever that note said it seemed important."

"Oh, okay," said Anya, nodding her head up and down.

"All right," I said "Follow me."

I began to float down the hall and watched as Anya followed me. I was glad to see she had stopped bouncing, I was starting to get dizzy again. She seemed like a nice girl, considering she was undead. It really surprised me how happy she was, and that she could even be happy. Most undead lost their ability to feel when they died, but she seemed to retain emotions.

"So this is where you live?" asked Anya. "I mean, we're undead so we don't really _live, _but you know what I mean right? So how is it?"

"It's... cool I guess," I said "I don't really do much. I work... then I sing with the other banshees... then I work some more."

"You get to sing?!" asked Anya, who suddenly seemed more excited, if that was possible. "I wish I got to sing! All I do is run around giving papers to important people. And Sylvanas makes us practice all the time, and I wasn't even a ranger before I died so it's really tricky."

"Wait, did you just say _Sylvanas_?" I asked.

Anya nodded. "Yup, she's in charge of us." she said "She trains us somewhat. It's sort of hard since she's a banshee though, an she doesn't have arms to shoot an arrow."

"You mean thee Sylvanas Windrunner?" I asked. Anya nodded. "She's... undead? Like us?"

"Yup," said Anya "She's a banshee like you. She works right under the Lich king. She's going to be coming here too."

"Wait, she's coming here?" I asked. "How do you know?"

"Yeah, she and the big guy from Icecrown are coming here. At least, that's what that paper that the Lich burned said." Anya smiled sheepishly. "Don't tell anyone I read it, I'm not supposed to."

I nodded. "Don't worry, I wont. You're secret's safe with me." I winked, but then I realized I couldn't because I didn't have any eyelids so I just settled with a nod.

"Thanks!" said Anya. "You're the best!"

I nodded. I looked ahead and saw that we had made it to the courtyard. Kalarasith and the other banshees were singing the same tune they always did at this hour. It was really pretty, in that sad way that I had grown to like. I slowed down a bit and began to walk over to Kalarasith, who was directing the other banshees. She didn't notice Anya and I until we were only a few feet away, but once she saw us she motioned for the other banshees to stop singing and called for a break.

"Yes, Clea?" she asked "What brings you to me? And why has this undead elf accompanied you? Other undead are not allowed here unless it's mandatory."

"I know, I know," I said. "The lich at the morgue told me to bring Anya here. He said it was really important."

If Kalarasith had an eyebrow, I'm sure it would have been raised. "Oh?" she asked, looking at Anya. "What do you have to tell me?"

Anya began rambling on about living in Icecrown and how the Lich King, or the big boss guy in the citadel according to her, wrote something on a piece of paper and told her and some other person to take it to Lordaeron, so she did, and she traveled a very long way across the world and took boats to get there and what not. Then she said she was separated from the other person she was with so she had to go there alone, and she some how made it to the ruins were she asked around multiple times where the morgue was, usually getting responses similar to, "If you don't stop bouncing I'm going to make your second death some a lot sooner than you expected!" To which she just laughed and went on with her day. Then she got to the Lich, got yelled out, and laughed some more because she thought he looked funny when he was angry. Then 'grumpy but nice banshee Clea' took her to Kalarasith to relay her message.

Kalarasith looked utterly lost. I didn't blame her. I felt the same way, and saw half of what Anya had just said. "So, what was the message?" asked Kalarasith.

"Oh, that," said Anya "Sylvanas and the big boss guy- I mean the Lich king- are coming here tomorrow."

"That's... it?" asked Kalarasith.

Anya nodded. "Yup."

"All right then," said Kalarasith. "Clea, could you take Anya with you on your next patrol? Give her something to use all of that energy on. I don't know where she'll be staying. I suppose she could stay here for the night, but I don't know what she'll be doing."

I nodded. "Sure," I said. I turned to Anya "My patrol shift starts now. Follow me. If you see anything living, shoot it. Unless its in chains. Don't shoot the prisoners, we need them."

"What about squirrels?" asked Anya as we began to walk out of the courtyard.

"What?" I asked.

"What if I see a squirrel?" she repeated. "Squirrels are alive here too, right? So if I see one, should I shoot it?"

"Um... if you want. I haven't actually seen a squirrel around here. Most of them died or ran away." I said "But if you see one, sure... You can shoot it. You don't need to, but if you want to that's fine."

"Okay!" said Anya, and she began to ramble on about something in her life that happened that had to do with a squirrel. I don't really know, I wasn't really listening. I was too busy focusing on the fact that Sylvanas Windrunner, my former ranger general, was coming here tomorrow. Undead or not, she was coming. What would that be like? Anya said she was a banshee, so she served the Lich King too. I never expected her to serve.

Would she tell us about how great the scourge was like the Lich King did? No, she wasn't like that. Or was she? Everyone changed after death... she was no different, right? So maybe she would give a speech about the greatness of the scourge. She was, after all, undead.


End file.
